Challenges

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Thursday, May 21, 2015

I'm getting ready to release my 40th novel! It's a huge career milestone for me, and I hope all of you will help me celebrate by enjoying my new trilogy, "The Lost Lords of Radcliffe."

The three books are a "real" trilogy, with one story leading into the next and the drama building with each novel. I'm releasing them over the summer so you'll be able to read the 2nd and 3rd books right away without having to wait months or years to find out what happens. HEART'S DELIGHT will be here on June 1st. HEART'S DESIRE is coming on July 1st. And Book 3, HEART'S DEMAND--my 40th novel!!!--will be here onAugust 1st. It will be a great summer of sexy, yummy reading.

The 3 novels will be released as e-books and print books. The e-version will be available for all e-readers, but the print books will not appear in stores. They will have to be ordered on-line at Amazon. The covers are beautiful, the stories breathtaking, heartbreaking, dramatic, and thrilling. I think it's my best work yet.

I hope you'll spend the summer--with me! And my Lost Lords of Radcliffe. Coming June, July, and August of 2015.

Cheryl Holt is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon "Top 100" bestselling author of forty novels.

She's also a lawyer and mom, and at age 40, with two babies at home, she started a new career as a commercial fiction writer. She'd hoped to be a suspense novelist, but couldn't sell any of her manuscripts, so she ended up taking a detour into romance, where she was stunned to discover that she has an incredible knack for writing some of the world's greatest love stories.

She is considered to be one of the masters of the romance genre, and her emotional, dramatic, and riveting stories of passion and illicit love have captivated fans around the world. She has won or been nominated for many national awards. For many years, she was hailed as "The Queen of Erotic Romance", and she's also revered as "The International Queen of Villains." She is particularly proud to have been named "Best Storyteller of the Year" by the trade magazine Romantic Times BOOK Reviews.

Cheryl lives and writes in Hollywood, California.

Synopsis for Lost Lord's series:

Evangeline Etherton grew up as an orphan and charity case at Miss Peabody’s School for Girls. But she was always haunted by memories of the loving family and siblings she’d once had. As a tiny girl, her father passed away, and her mother was wrenched from their lives and transported on a prison ship to Australia. Her three brothers were cast to the winds of fate and vanished from her life, but she was too young to understand why.What happened to her mother and brothers? Might her mother still be alive? And what about her brothers? Evangeline vows to learn the answers to those questions and begins her quest to find them and bring them all home.Synopsis for first book HEART'S DELIGHT:

Three little lost lords, cast to the winds of fate...

So begins CHERYL HOLT'S breathtaking new trilogy, The Lost Lords of Radcliffe...

MICHAEL SCOTT grew up an orphan on the streets of London. He has no memories of his past, but he's haunted by terrible dreams and always feels as if he lost something vital and precious along the way. Through cunning and determination, he's become rich, prosperous, and dangerous. As a brigand and criminal, he knows how to fight and survive any battle. But when he had such a rough beginning as a child, how has he managed to thrive so spectacularly? How can he ever learn the truth?

MAGDALENA WELLS runs a charity mission in London's worst slums. Although she's heard many vicious rumors about treacherous, deceitful Michael Scott, when she meets him, she can't help but fall under his spell. He is the most extraordinary person she's ever encountered. If ancestry makes the man, how is she to account for his remarkable traits? His drive and accomplishments have propelled him to the highest levels of London society—which is exactly where he seems to belong. How could a ruffian be so brilliant and successful? What is his true history? Can Magdalena help to reveal the secrets he's always been dying to discover?

Join CHERYL HOLT as she once again weaves a beloved tale of family, loyalty, love, and loss. As the truth about the "lost" lords is gradually revealed, readers will be cheering...

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

“I’m here to see the notorious gambler and criminal, Mr. Michael Scott.”

Magdalena Wells, known as Maggie to her friends and family, glared at the
oaf guarding the door. He’d just refused
her entrance to Mr. Scott’s disreputable gambling club, but she was angry and
aggrieved and had no time for posturing or nonsense.

The man studied her gray dress, her stern manner, her imperious
deportment. “Who shall I say is
calling? The bloody Queen of England?”

Maggie didn’t care for his attitude or his foul language, and her fury
soared.

“There’s no need to be rude or crude,” she said.

“If you don’t like my language, you don’t have to stay.”

She had no patience for fools and nearly stomped out, but her quest was
important, and she wouldn’t leave until she’d spoken in person to the exalted,
obnoxious Mr. Scott.

“In your line of employment,” she told him, “I’m certain you don’t often
cross paths with a lady, but I assure you I am one. Behave yourself.”

Her steely tone garnered his attention, and he flushed with chagrin.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Now then, take me to Michael Scott and be quick about it. Tell him I am proprietress of the Vicar
Sterns Rescue Mission.”

“Are you hoping to rescue him?”

“No, I’ve come to give him a piece of my mind.”

“That’ll send him into a swoon,” the man muttered, but he stepped back
and motioned her in. Outside it was a
bright, sunny June afternoon, so it took a minute for her vision to adjust.

The foyer of Mr. Scott’s establishment—hailed far and wide simply as Scotts—was dark and dank, and it smelled
of stale liquor, tobacco, and wanton habits.
In the main room there were tables and chairs arranged in haphazard
rows, and she could imagine it on a busy Saturday evening when it would be
packed with inebriated men who would wager away their money.

One wall was lined with shelves holding wine bottles and liquor
decanters. The other three were covered
with large, garish paintings of nude women.
Their bared breasts were most prominent, the reddened nipples seeming to
leap off the canvas.

The portraits were extremely disturbing, and she was offended by them,
but she kept her expression blank, not wishing to provide any hint that she was
unnerved by the risqué sight. And she
wasn’t. Not really.

Over the past few years, she’d grown practical and rational, the calm
port in any storm. It would take more
than the picture of a naked female to fluster her or deter her from the
conversation she was intent on having.

“Mr. Scott, please,” she said. “If
you’ll show me to him?”

“Follow me.”

The guard led her in, and though it was only two o’clock, there were men
lurking in the corners, drinking hard spirits and numbly watching her
pass. Their gazes were curious and
prurient.

She experienced a stab of compassion for them, wondering about the sorry
state of their lives that they would dawdle in such a seedy place. She wanted to speak to each of them, wanted
to discuss what had brought them there, what kept them from departing.

But she didn’t. She had no
business visiting as she had and wouldn’t remain a second longer than
necessary.

They continued on, climbed a narrow staircase, and walked down a hall to
the end. They stopped at a closed door,
and her escort knocked briskly, waited for a reply, didn’t receive one, then
knocked again.